Many radio systems operate by receiving a signal pulse and processing the signal pulse. One common example of a system which receives and processes a pulse radio signal is a radar system. Many radar systems operate by receiving and processing a pulsed signal that has reflected off of a remote object. These radar systems or other radio systems which process a pulse radio signal are used in aircraft navigation, air traffic control, target tracking, missile seeking, radar altimeters, and many others.
Many of these pulse signal processing systems require extensive processing of a received radio signal to properly analyze and ensure accuracy of data obtained from the signal. For example, data provided by radar navigation systems is critical to properly guide air based vehicles as there are no defined roads for the vehicles to follow. These radar systems act as the “eyes” of the vehicle and are often the only mechanism for navigation of the vehicle. The radar systems obtain a range measurement of the distance between the radar and the remote object by reflecting a pulse signal off of those objects and processing the reflected pulse signal. Accurate and efficient processing of the pulse signal is imperative for proper range measurement. The pulse processing, however, is a complex task and the calculations involved can take considerable time and require substantial processing power. Along with accuracy, speed and efficiency are also important to ensure that the controller of the aircraft has current information.
To further increase the reliability and accuracy of radar systems, many modem systems process the radar signal digitally. Digital processing increases the precision of the system, but it also drastically increases the amount of processing power required and often the processing time required. This is because many conventional systems individually process every data point that is sampled. As is often the case in these systems, the amount of computation required to analyze a signal is the limiting factor for the speed at which samples can be processed, and is thus a limiting factor in the precision of the system. The substantial level of computation required by digital processing also increases the power consumption of the system, which requires more and larger power supplies, thus increasing the overall weight and size of the system.
Radar navigation is only one example of a system which receives and processes a pulse radio signal, however, many of the pulse radio systems have the same difficulties associated with pulse radio signal processing. For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for a method of reducing the processing of a system that receives a pulse radio signal.